Questions various

Ha ha.... Such common problems.
I'm almost married to YouTube.
1. The 3 dots is a present YouTube problem - and should be resolved soon. It's new - and not long-term.
2. I only do YouTube on my home PC - and never on my work laptop.... Sorry.
3. Yes - download Real Player Downloader. You will then get a 'Record' icon every time you play a track.
4. I dunno - but agree, it's certainly crazy.
Live with YouTube. I promise you, it gets better by the month.

1. How do I turn up the volume on my laptop having turned everything to the maximum which is often insufficient for some YouTube music?

Buy decent external speakers!

?3. Is there any way of downloading from YouTube?
Lots. Batty has recommended one way. I use a screen capture / video downloader software which allows me to captyre pretty much any streaming media or anything playing on the screen.

1. I have my PC connected to my stereo so I can whack up the volume. My laptop yeah .. dunno. Same happens. It doesn't have a strong amplifier. External speakers or maybe some headphones with extra boost/volume control. You could also use other software see below.

2. If you are running Firefox browser you can install a plugin update. Such as Flashvideodownloader or Downloadhelper. From the tools menu select add-on and then type youtube in the search box. So basically when you have youtube video up you just click the icon next to the URL address area.

If it downloads a FLV file, just use VLC Player. With VLC Player it can boost your volume up too ... It can also play other files too like MP4 instead of using the Windows Media Player.

1. How do I turn up the volume on my laptop

Connecting the laptop to your stereo at home is best.
If you are travelling, have a look at mobile mini speakers like this. Much better than the built-in speakers.

There is also 'YouTube Downloader', but I've never used it.
Real does me fine for what I want and need.

Thank you all very much so in summary:

1. The dots will disappear like a pox in their own good time.

2. Is the problem the speakers? The reason I ask is, why can some things be very loud and some not? Presumably the data, information, little electrons or whatever which are converted into sound are reaching my laptop or I would hear nothing at all. When I was a child I had a valve radio dating from I think the 1930ties which had a volume control. Can it be that so many years later whoever designed my laptop couldn't be bothered to make one with a sufficient range? Just curious there might be a good reason.

3. Downloading - thanks for info I'll get a friend to help.

4. Again is this idleness on the part of the people who design the system? There would be no problem organising the information if they were say books or records. In fact they managed books in libraries hundreds of year ago.

Again thanks for your help. I do wonder how much I need to know to work the systems.

Go to YouTube and open either 'Download Real Player Downloader' or 'YouTube Downloader'.
There are several guides there on how to get them.
Just take it step by step in a different window - and pause it during process.

Thank you. It would take longer to explain why I could not get it to work than I have as life is too short. I do have realplayer installed and I now have it reinstalled. Time for a drink.

Indeed.... Enjoy.